The narrative of Muslims across the world is tainted by people’s Islamophobia which is perpetuated in the media, through politicians manifestos and through group’s of people who are stuck with the notion that anyone who is not white is deemed ‘wrong.’

Practical-minded Isma has spent the years since her mother’s death watching out for her twin brother and sister in their North London home. When an invitation to grad school in America comes through unexpectedly, it brings the irresistible promise of freedom too long deferred. But even an ocean away, Isma can’t stop worrying about her beautiful, headstrong, politically inclined sister, Aneeka, and Parvaiz, their brother, who seems to be adrift—until suddenly he is half a globe away in Raqqa, trying to prove himself to the dark legacy of the father he never knew, with no road back.

Then Eamonn Lone enters the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The instrument of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined.

Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire – which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018, and was long listed for the Booker Prize in 2017 – attempts to portray to readers the realism of living in a Muslim family with sisters Isma and Aneeka trying to save their brother, Parvais from being kept in the Islamic State. For lovers of classic Greek tragedies reading Home Fire, you will have noticed that Shamsie reimagines Antigone by Sophocles in a modern setting, and uses Antigone to convey how British Muslims struggle with their cultural identity where they feel one thing but the world is assuming they feel another.

 

“For girls, becoming women was inevitability; for boys, becoming men was ambition.”

 

The novel follows the perspectives of five different characters, starting with Isma, the older sister of Aneeka and Parvais who takes it upon herself to act like their guardian. The use of different character perspectives was interesting as the reader gets to explore the same storyline through different eyes, along with each characters political inclinations. However, not all of the point of views read as well as each other, with Isma being the most interesting and relatable.

 

“Grief manifested itself in ways that felt like anything but grief; grief obliterated all feelings but grief.”

 

The portrayal of the hijab throughout Home Fire is also a problem, with it being shown as a sexual item that is used to convey is a woman is sexually free based upon whether she is wearing it or not. There is a moment in the beginning of the book where Isma’s Auntie makes a comment about Isma wearing her hijab and how it will affect how successful she is with men: “one other piece of advice. Reconsider the hijab… It might be keeping your young man at a distance.” Why would a Muslim woman say this to another Muslim woman. Isn’t this just reinforcing the negative connotations that are perpetuated about Islam? Why is Shamsie saying that the hijab isn’t attractive?

If it was a white man making this comment, it would be understandable for this to be included as it would show the ignorance of society. However, as it is a fellow Muslim making this comment, it is not clear why it is included as it is advocating Western ideas about the hijab.

 

“Everything else you can live around, but not death. Death you have to live through.”

 

There was another instance – in Eamonn’s perspective – where I literally gasped out loud because of how blasphemous it is. It says “he couldn’t help watching this woman, this stranger, prostrating herself to God in the room where she’d been down on her knees for a very different purpose just hours earlier.” Here is a woman who is praying to her God, taking a moment for herself and her religion, and it is turned into a sexual moment. After speaking to other reader’s of this book – and other Muslims – they all agreed that it was horrific for it to be written.

Even though there were definitely some shaky parts throughout Home Fire, it ended up being an emotional, heart-wrenching novel that adapts Antigone very well.

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